What is Unicode?
Unicode provides a unique number for every character,
no matter what the platform,
no matter what the program,
no matter what the language.
Fundamentally, computers just deal with numbers. They store letters and other characters by assigning a number for each one. Before Unicode was invented, there were hundreds of different encoding systems for assigning these numbers. No single encoding could contain enough characters: for example, the European Union alone requires several different encodings to cover all its languages. Even for a single language like English no single encoding was adequate for all the letters, punctuation, and technical symbols in common use.
These encoding systems also conflict with one another. That is, two encodings can use the same number for two different characters, or use different numbers for the same character. Any given computer (especially servers) needs to support many different encodings; yet whenever data is passed between different encodings or platforms, that data always runs the risk of corruption.
Microsoft Windows XP
The simplified installer for Sinhala/Tamil Unicde can be downloaded from here. (15Mb)The installation instructions can be downloaded from here.
The interfacecs (menus etc) of windows XP have not been translated.
Sinhala kit for Windows XP with Service Pack 2 and 3 (beta version)
Internet Explorer 6
IE6 Sinhala support can be installed by downloading a small kit that is only 1.5MB .This gives read only Sinhala support.
It can be downloaded from here.
Installation guidelines are available here.